Simple Recipe - Curry Sardine

For this curry, I will use can sardines and combine with brinjal. The brand I normally buy will be Ayam brand although there is quite a number of brand out there.

As we love brinjal in curry, I have put more this time. As for a can of 425g sardines, depending on the size of fish, one can will have about 4 - 6 fish.

Ingredient

2 can Sardines, each net weight 425g

4 - 5 approx 6" brinjal

1 coconut = 1.5 medium bowl of coconut milk

5 - 6 tbls chillies blend*

1" Shrimp Paste

1.5 tbls Babas Fish Curry Powder

Curry leaves

Salt to taste

Method

Heat up a pot, pour in oil

Stir in chillies blend, shrimp paste, curry leaves - fry till fragrant

Pour in coconut milk

Follow by sauce in the sardines can**

Add Salt

Then brinjal

Once brinjal is soft, lastly sardines 

Note: 

**

If use 2 can sardines, use 1 can of sauce in can. If use 1 can, then 1/2 can of sauce.

*

Chillies Blend is combination of  blended dried chillies, small onion and garlic 

Simple Recipe - Fish stuff with Sambal (Chilli Concoction)

Peranakan call this recipe as Hu Chi Rempah or in malay, we name it Ikan Sumbat Sambal.

We normally buy Hardtail Scad Fish (Cencaru) for this recipe. However, you can also use Indian Mackerel Fish (Kembong) or this fish below which I do not know its name lol, equally delicious. When you buy the fish from market, just get the fishmonger, just ask them to slit the back of the fish on both side.

Normally it is quite messy to fry this stuff sambal fish. Freak not, you can also use oven. Wrap the fish in banana leave or aluminium foil. Cook it at 180°c for 15-20 minutes depending on the size of your fish.

Cooked Sambal

Stuff the sambal into pocket of the fish

You may find lots of different recipe for this, but I have been following my late mother in law's recipe but I still think she definitely cooked better than me.

Some recipe will use tumeric, lemmongrass and ginger which is totally up to your preference.

Ingredients
Fish of your choice
Blended chilli paste*
Handful of Tamarind : 1/2 medium bowl of tamarind juice
4 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
Cooking Oil

To blend:
A medium bowl of dried chilli, cut, wash, soak with hot water
8 small onion, cut to pieces
5 garlic, cut to pieces
1" Shrimp paste
Put some water and bil oil

Method
Heat up wok, pour in oil
Then fry the blended paste till fragrant
Add in sugar, salt and tamarind juice. Taste it if needed just add these 3 items accordingly.
The blended paste will be deeper in color
Scoop up and put in a bowl
Once cool down, stuff the cooked chilli paste into the pocket of the fish

Heat up wok, pour in oil
Fry the fish

Simple Recipe - Assam Pedas Fish

Whenever hubby bought Mackerel, also known as Indian Mackerel, Assam Pedas will comes into mind. With pineapple will make it appetizing either to go with rice or vermicelli.

Important to have daun kesom. In English names for the herb include Vietnamese mint, Vietnamese cilantro, Cambodian mint, hot mint, laksa leaf, and praew leaf. Its Vietnamese name is rau răm.

Besides daun kesom or laksa leaf, torch ginger bud is a must to make the Asam Pedas aromatic.

Ingredients
8 Indian Mackerel
10 tblsp Blend Chilies Paste*
125gm Tamarind Paste
2 stalk Laksa Leaf
1 Torch Ginger Bud 
3 teasp Sugar
1 teasp Salt

Method
Blend Chilies Paste
A medium bowl of Dried Chilies, cut,wash, then soaked with hot water.
8 small onion
5 cloves garlic
1/2" tumeric
2 lemmon grass, cut the white part
1" shrimp paste
Blend all the above

Heat up a pot
125 gm of tamarind paste, wash and squeeze out about 3.5 medium bowl tamarind juice
Add in 10 tablespoon of blended chilies paste,laksa leaf, torch ginger bud, sugar and salt
Boil a while, add in pineapple and lastly fish

Note: You can substitute fish with prawn. 
   

    

Simple Recipe - Indian Style Curry Fish

I have been trying my best to cook this dish numerous times. I believe practise makes perfect. In the beginning it just did not turn out as my late mom in law's cooking. But gradually now my cooking has improved though not as up to mark if to compare with my late mom in law.

As a Penang nyonya, there is no measurement in her cooking, everything "agak-agak" (estimate). So I also have to use her method trial and error.  Thus I do not really use grammage or spoon for measurement of spices that I use but I try put here to ease whoever who wanna try out cooking this dish.

Ingredients
Sliced of Mackerel
20 Okra
2 Big onion quartered
2 Tomato cut wedges
16 tbls Chili Blend (6 small onion, 6 garlic, medium bowl dried chilies)
Spices (1/2 small bowl coriander seed, 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/4 tsp fennel, 2 star anise, 2 cinnamon stick, 4 clove)
1 coconut : 2 medium bowl coconut milk
60g tamarind: 1 medium bowl tamarind juice
Curry leaves

Method
Oil
Chili blend stir till fragrance
Salt (to taste)
Put in Spices stir till fragrance
Curry Leaves
Then add coconut milk to boil
Follow by tamarind juice and salt
Add tomato, big onion & okra
Finally fish

Try the gravy if not enough sour, add tamarind juice